


It Was Time for Thomas to Leave; He Had Seen Everything

by michaeljagger



Series: that’s how I wanna go [1]
Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: M/M, is it 'major character death' if we already know though?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-17 23:57:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18974917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/michaeljagger/pseuds/michaeljagger
Summary: “You appear to have died,” Thomas said cheerfully. Robin had said it was no good mincing words when this happened. “I’ll go and get the others.”“What others? Who are you? And I can’t have died, I’m right here and - I can’t have died like that-““Ah, nobody ever dies the way they wanted to,” Thomas said, indicating his bloodstained waistcoat. “I myself hoped to go surrounded by -“Thomas sees everything, but doesn't leave.





	It Was Time for Thomas to Leave; He Had Seen Everything

1943

 

Thomas sighed, and started again from the top. He knew he had something amazing on his hands - if only he were allowed to  _ focus _ .

“We’ll meet again.” He paused, for effect and to remember the next line. “Don’t know how. Don’t know when. But I  _ know  _ we’ll meet again some -“

It was no use. He hadn’t written (in his sense of the word) a single verse since these soldiers had shown up. They sung, they shouted, they shot at things, and worst of all,  _ this _ . The thudding on the other side of the wall was incessant, and growing faster. Did they have to bring back ladies of the night during the day now, too?

He put his head through the wall to the next room, scowling. He hadn’t decided what he would do, or indeed what he  _ could _ do to give them a fright. He had tried to test if he could make the living smell gunpowder if he passed through them, much like Mary, but all he had got was inconclusive results and many unpleasant shudders.

A dark-skinned man sat on the bed in shirtsleeves, smoking a cigarette, his expression contemplative. Sitting on the edge of the bed, back to Thomas, was his companion, who was hurriedly dressing. She was rather a  _ large _ lady, and Thomas couldn’t think why she was wearing a military uniform. All the same -

“Are you sure you’re alright?” said the man in bed. The other turned to glance at him.

Ah.  _ Not _ a lady. Thomas had heard about this sort of thing from Fanny. He eased himself fully through the wall.

“Yes. Just a little short of breath,” said the other man tersely.

“Well, perhaps if you didn’t insist on getting dressed so quickly-“

“You know this mustn’t happen again, don’t you?”

“That’s what you say every time.”

“I mean it, Francis. This must be the last time.” He was putting on his boots at an almost feverish pace, and his breathing was getting worse. Thomas swore he could hear the man’s heart thudding, though it occurred to him that it might have been a soldier in another room  _ going at it _ , as he believed the current parlance to be.

The dressed man stood up, unnoticed by presumably Francis, who continued talking.

“You and I both know it won’t be.” He reached out to the other. “When this war is over -“

He stopped. “Captain?”

The other one (Captain? His real rank or an affectionate nickname?) had frozen where he stood. His hand was raised to his chest, and grasped weakly for a moment before he crashed to the floor. Were Thomas solid, he might have lost his footing from the resounding thud.

“Captain!” Francis got out of bed, rushing to the Captain’s side. “What are you - oh, dear  _ God _ , Captain-“

He bent over the Captain, touching his face gently. “I’ll get help. I’m sorry - I didn’t mean to -“

He made a choked noise and ran from the room, his footsteps echoing down the hallway and the stairs. Thomas edged around the bed (force of habit) to get a closer look, but was suddenly barricaded by an officer in his face, brandishing a stick.

“I say! This is a military base! It’s no place to be loitering about in fancy dress.”

Fancy? “Well, I thank you, sir, but must you shout?”

“What is this insubordination?” Thomas managed to peer round the officer confronting him to the Captain on the floor. They looked remarkably alike. Exactly alike. All too quickly, Thomas realised what had happened.

“Who is your C.O? And why are you not in uniform?”

“My what?”

“Well, civilians are  _ strictly _ forbidden, don’t you know there’s a war on? This is outrageous, I shall have to-“

The Captain made the mistake of turning around. For a long, long moment, he stared at his own body on the floor. Then he looked desperately at Thomas. Then he looked at his body for several more seconds, for good measure.

“But how can that - if I’m - ?”

“You appear to have died,” Thomas said cheerfully. Robin had said it was no good mincing words when this happened. “I’ll go and get the others.”

“What  _ others _ ? Who are you? And I can’t have died, I’m right here and - I can’t have died like  _ that _ -“

“Ah, nobody ever dies the way they wanted to,” Thomas said, indicating his bloodstained waistcoat. “I myself hoped to go surrounded by -“

The Captain had gone - well, part of him had. His body was still on the floor. It made Thomas feel quite squeamish. He wondered where his own body had got to after they’d taken it away.

Perhaps the Captain had Gone On already, though he’d seemed far too agitated for that. Thomas slid out through the wall and went to find Fanny.

 

If there was anything more irritating than the soldiers themselves, it had been Kitty’s gushing adoration for them. She had spent the last several weeks in a constant twitter over how  _ handsome _ and how  _ brave _ and how  _ good  _ they looked in uniform, and she was not stopping now. She had told an indifferent Mary that she would have preferred one of the younger ones to die, but she was taken enough with the Captain and sat on the low wall beside him, switching between explaining the vagaries of ghosthood and asking her own questions.

“One can’t eat or drink, but you get used to that, except sometimes I still miss it, but - oh, oh, and I meant to ask as well, what do you call the very large carriage with a musket attached?”

The Captain had his head in his hands. Fanny tutted.

“That’s just what we need, another sulk.” She gave Thomas a pointed look.

“Oh, you old shrew.”

“Shrew be a food that I miss,” Mary said wistfully, having half-listened to Kitty’s chattering. The other ghosts were stood a short distance away from Kitty and the Captain, watching the soldiers mill around outside. Some of them seemed in rather high spirits, but Francis had tears streaking his face while he talked to a stern police constable.

Kitty rushed up, holding her skirts out of the way of the wet grass as if it mattered. “He got up and said he had to talk to his friend,” she said, distressed. “Ought I to tell him?”

“No. He need work out for himself,” Robin said. “Mary, what is shrew?”

Mary began to explain and Thomas, keen to distract himself from she and Robin’s collaborative abuses of English grammar, looked for the Captain. He had approached Francis, of course, who was still tearful, and spoke harshly to him, loudly enough that Thomas could hear.

“Pull yourself  _ together _ , man. Stop this ludicrous display at once. I’m standing right here, can’t you -“

He gasped and stumbled as Francis walked straight through him, summoned by another commanding officer. Kitty let out a sob.

“Oh, the poor  _ thing _ .”

“It feels bloody horrible the first time they do that,” Humphrey said from the ground.

“Do we knows,” Mary said, “how he died?”

The Captain was still following the oblivious Francis, talking more softly now, almost pleading. Thomas shook his head, thinking about his poem from earlier.

“I’ve no idea.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry for the meme title. BBC please be aware I will accept no other explanation for the Captain's death. May end up writing a present-day follow-up to this.


End file.
